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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29202636">Only if You Marry Me First</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairmanor/pseuds/fairmanor'>fairmanor</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Schitt's Creek</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Divergent, Disaster Boyfriends David and Patrick, Double proposal, Episode: s05e13 The Hike, Fluff, M/M, One Shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:42:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,713</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29202636</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairmanor/pseuds/fairmanor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“I used to come on this like a lot when I first moved here, and I was developing feelings for this guy I’d just…wait, why are you laughing?”</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Patrick's proposal up on Rattlesnake Point interrupts a very important plan of David's own.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Patrick Brewer/David Rose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>61</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>265</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Only if You Marry Me First</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I don't usually write one shots because I don't think I'm very good at them but this idea wouldn't leave my head and I just had to get it out! Hope you enjoy.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had started from the moment Patrick had sighed and settled into David’s arms in bed a week ago, when he’d closed his eyes against the morning sun and said, “I was thinking we should go on a picnic.”</p><p>There’s this idea brewing inside him. David is usually good at sifting ideas; he knows what he wants from life better than he ever did nowadays, knows which realistic goals will fit and which far-fetched fantasies to abandon.</p><p>But this one, the question of marrying Patrick Brewer, seems to fit somewhere snugly in between. Well, not so snugly, given the amount it’s been bothering him. It normally takes David seconds to decide between the correct and incorrect, whether something is viable or ridiculous. But for the sixth night in a row, the night before this dreaded picnic, David is lying awake, his sore, dry eyes fixed on the ceiling.</p><p>See, he bought the ring a while ago. He bought it the moment he had a chance to go to Elmdale under the guise of testing out some potpourri for the store. It’s a short, thick band of tungsten, as simple and solid as the man he hopes will one day be wearing it. There was something that <em>changed </em>in the moment Patrick had held him close on his birthday and told him he made everything okay. The place on David’s neck that Patrick had kissed bloomed with warmth for hours afterwards and David couldn’t stop thinking about how all he wanted to do was make everything okay for the rest of their lives.</p><p>But by the time the actual hike comes around, David’s still second-guessing his decision with every step. He <em>tried </em>to enjoy the hike, but…the heat. And he just lost out on the brand new chrome Expobar espresso machine that someone was selling for a criminally low price on Ebay. And the tiny fibers of his sweater are sticking to his sides and tickling him. And –</p><p>“Ah!”</p><p>“Where’s the bear?”</p><p>Fuck. This isn’t how he wanted it to go. This wasn’t how any of this was supposed to go.</p><p>As David gets a now very moody Patrick situated on a rock with his foot stuck out, he tries his absolute hardest not to spiral into a train of overthought about this whole proposal idea. He’s already piggybacking off of Patrick’s date idea anyway, which makes him wonder if he’s meant to have put more thought into this.</p><p>“I wanna go home, David, this whole day’s been a bust,” Patrick says, and David’s chest aches at the waver in his voice. He really cares about this trip.</p><p><em>Make everything okay, </em>the eternal thrum in David’s very core calls out.</p><p>“Well, that’s not happening,” David says defiantly. Maybe he won’t propose today, but he wants to make sure Patrick goes home without that pout on his face no matter how adorable it is.</p><p>“What is that?”</p><p>David snicks the cap and squeezes the bottle onto his upturned fingers. “It’s hand sanitiser. Can be used as a disinfectant.”</p><p>He panics a little, expecting Patrick to ask about a first aid kit. David had quickly sacrificed his little travel-sized one in favour of making space for the ring box. If he’s stealthy, he can hide the thing and Patrick won’t even have to know about it.</p><p>David leans forward, clasping his hands together and clamping his lips gently.</p><p>“I’m sorry for not appreciating you today,” he says. “You’ve packed two big backpacks full of food and –” he almost mentions the lack of a BandAid before he remembers that it’s his fault – “if you wanna keep hiking, I think we should keep hiking.”</p><p>“No…I don’t think so, but thank you,” Patrick says, and David wants to cry at how pure his boyfriend is. “I think I sorta killed the romance.”</p><p>Fuck, why is he making it so hard to decide? They’re having what feels dangerously like an argument, yet David would still marry him <em>yesterday</em> if he could.</p><p>“No, you didn’t!” David insists, rubbing Patrick’s arm thoroughly. “You planned this beautiful day for us. And I think we should finish it.”</p><p>The awkward air clears pretty quickly, and not a hundred yards later the smile is back on Patrick’s face. Stubborn idiot that he is, he grits his teeth and tries to limp his way through as much as he can before his foot starts throbbing and he looks towards David with his lip stuck out and his arms outstretched, the exact same way he looks after a long day and wants to curl up on David to sulk about it.</p><p>By the time they reach the top, Patrick latched onto his back like a koala, David’s mind has changed. He takes one look at the view, miles of lush evergreens and birds of prey sailing on the gentle breeze, and decides that he might not get anywhere quite this beautiful for a while. He considered the botanical gardens in Elmdale, but the cherry blossoms were out of season now and he didn’t want to wait another year to get engaged to Patrick.</p><p>He didn’t want to wait another second.</p><p>David unpacks the bags, half-wondering that he can put this champagne to better use if – <em>when</em>, he corrects, upon a second thought to give their relationship a bit of credit – Patrick says yes.</p><p>“And, um…if you go into that front pocket there, there’s actually – something.”</p><p>David feels a little thrill of excitement, wondering if it’s one of the individually wrapped hazelnut cannoli they sell at the fancy Italian bakery in Elm Grove. He has a brief bit of respite from feeling sick with nerves thinking about the proposal as he struggles with the zip, then reaches his hand inside to pull out something that is very much not cannoli.</p><p>No.</p><p>Is this…?</p><p>Surely not.</p><p>It can’t be.</p><p>David turns around, and oh God, it is.</p><p>Patrick’s there on one knee, his tremor-filled hands worrying at the fabric on his trousers.</p><p>David can’t help but gasp, wet and shuddering, as he takes in what’s happening.</p><p>He eyes the other bag, where he knows his own velvet box is nestled between the ice packs. God, this whole situation. This whole day. It’s just – it’s so…</p><p>“I used to come on this like a lot when I first moved here, and I was developing feelings for this guy I’d just…wait, why are you laughing?”</p><p>David forces his lips together, averting his gaze from the half-smile and furrowed brow Patrick has adopted in confusion.</p><p>“I’m sorry, I’m not –” David waves a hand in front of his face. “It’s just so <em>funny.”</em></p><p>Patrick’s face drops.</p><p>“No, not because of you! I just – oh, hang on a second.”</p><p>David’s heart is hammering now. He considered waiting to let Patrick finish, but he’s too giddy. And he didn’t want Patrick to think he was laughing at him any longer.</p><p>He reaches down and unzips the bag with a shaking hand, laughing a bit harder now that he’s getting closer to placating Patrick with the reason. And now he knows for certain that Patrick is going to say yes, so there’s <em>that. </em>He sort of feels like he’s floating right now.</p><p>Finally, he wrestles the now-cold box free and tumbles backwards, shuffling himself into a kneeling position as it dawns on Patrick what’s going to happen.</p><p>“I spent – the <em>whole</em> journey,” David says between labored breaths, “wondering whether or not I should do this right now. Because - <em>fuck, let me catch my breath</em> -  this day didn’t go perfectly, and when you brought up the picnic last week I imagined proposing to you in, like, a charming English garden with men on horseback riding around the distance.”</p><p>Patrick laughs, tears filling his eyes. David hands him back his own ring box.</p><p>“But you know what? It was perfect. I think the worst day in the world would be perfect if you were there.” </p><p>Patrick opens his box, and David does too. His heart catches in his throat at the sight of the four gold rings, glinting in the midday light.</p><p>Patrick takes a breath and sobs quietly when he takes out his own ring, thankfully all in once piece. David had winced every time the bag jostled on the way up. Patrick inspects the inside, where David had commissioned an engraving of a tiny ‘P.R.’ after he’d bought it, and lets out a soft ‘oh’.</p><p>“I was going to say, before you quite rudely interrupted me,” Patrick says, smiling through his tears, “that this felt like the perfect place to ask you to marry me.”</p><p>He reaches over and puts the four rings on David’s fingers.</p><p>“Well. I wouldn’t say <em>perfect </em>place, the perfect place would be a lot less deadly and with a lot more cherry blossoms, but…” David looks around at their little secluded corner in the woods, on the outskirts of the town that saved his life. Looks at the person in front of him who makes his life better every day. “It feels like the perfect time to ask you to marry me, up here when everything’s going wrong.”</p><p>Patrick smiles as David slides the silver ring onto his fourth finger and cups his fiancé’s face to bring him in for a teary, bruising kiss. They sit practically on top of each other, trading kisses with David’s legs wrapped around Patrick’s waist, for longer than David can keep track of.</p><p>The rest of their afternoon is filled with champagne, cheese, uncontrollable laughter at the entire situation and a set of photos where they both look snotty and red-eyed and blissfully happy.</p><p>By the time they’ve finished the food and are leaning against a rock at the back of the cliff, fingers interlaced and heads pressed together, David can’t help thinking how right he was about proposing in this moment, and not inside some manufactured perfection. After everything he’s been through with Patrick over the past two years, after every mishap and bump in the road and stupid little nonsense that’s reared its head, it’s a fitting way to move into this new, beautiful chapter of their life.</p><p>If anything were to come along that looked anything close to <em>perfect…</em>well, David doesn’t think he would want it.</p>
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